You can support us by:

signing our petition

We ask that anyone and everyone who supports our union and our collective vision for Experimental Station’s future sign our petition!

writing to the board

We are demanding immediate, voluntary recognition from the Experimental Station board of directors. For over a month, Experimental Station’s Board of Directors has refused to even meet with our union, despite a majority of support from workers past and present, tenants, elected officials, and hundreds of community members.

Send a message to the Experimental Station Executive Director and Board Members to help us win recognition and uplift our struggle! Edit the email template to reflect your concerns and support!

fundraise for fired Blackstone mechanics

Just after Christmas, Experimental Station leadership decided to close the shop indefinitely, with only a week’s notice. In January 2021, the three remaining staff mechanics were laid off! Since Josh, Kevin, and Nana were laid off, those who have applied have been denied unemployment. We are asking our communities for monetary support to cover their lost wages. All funds raised will be split between the three mechanics who were laid off!

writing a testimony

Have you been a part of Experimental Station and our many communities? We’d love to hear and share your public testimony of support for our union—as a neighbor, staff person, program participant, volunteer, board member, performer, audience member, customer, community partner, teacher, vendor, donor, tenant, or friendly face! Sharing your experience and public testimony shows all of us the strength of our community! See our current testimonials.

writing a letter of public support

Do you have a relationship to a community organization, union, partner, congregation, politician, business, book club, sports team, or any other community who would like to support our campaign? Email us at staff@esunion.org to talk about how to send a letter of support and other ways you can help! See our current endorsements and letters of support.

share our campaign

Share our social media—@expstationunion—and website—esunion.org! Tell your friends! Email us to pick up some buttons! Make your own posts or signs—really any way to amplify our efforts and show our community is deeply appreciated! We’re a small team whose work has always depended on our communities.

and please, reach out to us with any ideas you might have for collaboration! we want to build together—staff, tenants, neighbors, customers, organizations, board members, organizers, workers, you—anyone in our communities near and far! You can reach us at staff@esunion.org to start the conversations.

Our letter to our Executive Director and the Experimental Station Board of Directors requesting voluntary recognition

March, 22, 2021

Dear Connie and Marty, 

We are pleased to inform you that an overwhelming majority of staff at the Experimental Station have joined together to form a union with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 39. Forming a union will empower us to better pursue our shared mission of building independent cultural infrastructure on the South Side of Chicago.

We believe that our forming a union is congruent with Experimental Station’s values of hospitality and mutualism. Collaboration has been fundamental to Experimental Station’s successes, and we see this opportunity to build our collective voice as a natural progression. Experimental Station invites innovative projects, resource sharing, and community. We’re excited to more intentionally act as civic stewards in this collective project—where staff, tenants, and community members together shape what happens at Experimental Station. Critical projects have come from our many collaborations, and it’s because of our collective hospitality that so many of our neighbors have such goodwill towards the space.

We believe that our workplace conditions impact our ability to effectively serve the Woodlawn community and its surrounding neighborhoods. We want a safe and transparent workplace where staff are empowered to address systemic issues of white supremacy and sexism—problems endemic to most workplaces but which are too often ignored. We want an equitable workplace with clear accountability, where we can come together to ensure staff well-being and collectively meet our mission. 

As staff we carry out the everyday work of our programs. We firmly believe that together we’re best situated to address our problems and foster our successes. Empowered staff make for better workplaces, and our union will make our work more sustainable. Our union is bigger than any of us. We are proud of the work that we do at the Experimental Station, and we are eager to play a central role in its future. For almost two decades, Experimental Station has pioneered models for sustainable community infrastructure, so let’s also be a leader in supporting nonprofit workplace democracy. 

As you will see below, the signatures on this petition demonstrate the support of a majority of staff. We ask that you respect the wishes of Experimental Station staff and voluntarily recognize our union. We are eager to come together as soon as possible—avoiding a lengthy and publicly contentious process—in order to collaboratively determine improvements and actions to ensure Experimental Station’s success. And as President Biden recently urged, “it's not up to me to decide whether anyone should join a union. But let me be even more clear, it's not up to an employer to decide that either. The choice to join a union is up to the workers—full stop. [...] It's your right. No employer can take that right away. So make your voice heard." We hope you will support our choice to exercise this right and to participate in this crucial form of civic organization.

We ask you to voluntarily recognize our union. We look forward to being recognized as a union, to a robust collective bargaining process, and to working with you and the Board of Directors to better serve our community.    

Respectfully submitted,
Experimental Station Union

Rebecca Connie
Shannon Davis
J. Michael Eugenio
DJ Fish
Rebecca Hall
Elizabeth Lerum

cc: the Experimental Station board — Martin Friedman, Emmitt House, Mulubwa Munkanta, Michelle Holland, Corliss King, Mea Konopasek, Beth Loeb, Dan Peterman, Steve Wiesenthal